Works (and Cities) in Progress
This piece was first published last April. In early March, Tom Brokaw picked Reading, Pennsylvania as "emblematic of many struggling cities." In his short profile, students at Reading High School say they can't wait to get out of this city. For many years, people in the suburbs and surrounding farmland told me they didn't want to go in. Reading has been a city to drive around at all costs, and a place to dream of...
The Bearable Lightness of Letting Go
Undeterred by the cold and rainy weather, they came. Car after car, every passenger door flung open, each woman leaping out to scan the tables, hawk-eyed, grasping the best pillow or wine glass or ceramic on the table, throwing cash at us while diving back into the car and speeding on to the next driveway full of hopeful clutter. It was madness. It was bizarre. It was actually quite admirable. It was a yard sale. ...
Facebook Friends Without Benefits (broken heart) and Other Newsfeeds
You have a secret. You are a masochist. You were feeling down on yourself and so you checked the Facebook profiles of the last three people you have been involved with. Kendra Robinson wrote on Nick Patterson’s wall. Sure, no big deal, right? But, then why is Kendra’s profile picture of her and Nick? And, if you scroll down further, why did Nick post a picture of the two of them when he has never posted any of ...
Savannah: City In Flux
The lens centers upon a row of boarded up buildings, with tattered siding and leaning roofs. Along the edges of the image, there is a crumbling sidewalk strewn with derelict characters. At night, the streets in this neighborhood shine bright with globes installed by the city. Behind closed doors, the community rages: shouts of anger burst through a cracked window, a woman calls for help, two kids light up in hopes ...
Detroit: The Resilient City
Detroit is not the easiest place to live but that’s part of its charm. It asks a lot of you at times, but it is unlike any city I have encountered in the freedom it offers, the deep community it necessitates, and the creative responses it provokes. I moved to Detroit a year ago to start graduate school at Cranbrook Academy of Art and quickly began to feel like it was a place I was supposed to live for a long tim...
Night In At The Movies
Early this year, some friends from church approached me about organizing a monthly film night. They had just finished remodeling their single-family home in Brooklyn, and they were feeling generous towards their neighbors, and maybe a little thankful to God for the good fortune of a beautiful new home. So, armed with a video projector, fresh popcorn, and an unpainted sheetrock wall, we set about creating a little l...
An Interview with Katie Herzig (Part 2)
This is the second in a three-part interview with singer/songwriter Katie Herzig. You can read part one here. During all this you were still living in Colorado. What prompted you to move to Nashville? I had taken trips out to Nashville to do some songwriting, and the band had recorded our last record there, so I had some history with the city and knew a handful of people. I had gotten to know some artists w...
